1. Describe the nature of the kami (deities) based on the information in the Kojiki and/or Nihon shoki. How do they differ from mankind?

2. Compare and contrast The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter with Puccini's Turandot (or any of its predecessors).

3. Are the Tales of Ise didactic? If so, what lessons do they mean to teach?

4. Describe the development of an aesthetic sense in The Tales of Ise.

5. What are the major components in Tosa Journal? What elements do traditional Japanese travelogues almost always include, and what do they exclude? How is this different from travelogues in the West?

6. What was Michitsuna's mother's motive in writing Gossamer Journal? (use key passages to make your point).

7. What is the role of uta makura in the Pillow Book?

8. Was Sei Shonagon (the author of the Pillow Book) typical of court ladies in the Heian period? Use passages from the book so support your argument.

9. What is the purpose of writing A Tale of Flowering Fortunes? Is it arcane, or can it speak to the present day?

10. What is the purpose of writing The Riverside Counselor's Stories? Is it a successful collection, or does it fail to accomplish its goal?

11. What is the role of plot in traditional Japanese literature? Is it important or not?

12. Compare the Gossamer Journal and the Pillow Book. They are both diaries; how are they similar, and how are they different? Why?

13. Compare the Tales of Times Now Past with the Tales of Ise. Why and how do they differ?

14. Describe the perfect Heian period man or woman, based on what you find in the literature we have read. Use quotes/examples to support your thesis.

1. Compare and contrast the Confessions of Lady Nijo with Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book.

2. Compare and contrast Journal of the Sixteenth Night Moon and Journey to the East.

3. What commonalities do the travelogues we have read so far have? How do they differ from Western travelogues? Why might that be so?

4. How does Kamo no Chomei convey a sense of mappo? What particular imagery does he use, and how effective is it?

5. Compare Kamo no Chomei's Hojoki with Henry David Thoreau's Walden.

6. How does Chomei's work reflect political changes of the times? Contrast it with earlier Heian pieces.

7. Compare and contrast Yoshida Kenko's Essays in Idleness with Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book.

8. How do Kamo no Chomei's and Yoshida Kenko's views of the past differ? Use specific examples from the texts to support your argument.

9. How did aesthetics change between the Heian period and the Kamakura period? Using the texts we've read as examples, demonstrate the differences and similarities.

10. Describe the concept of yugen, and show how it is expressed in Noh theater. A little outside reading (but not too much!) will be necessary for this topic. See me for suggestions.

11. What role does spirit possession play in Japanese literature?

12. Compare and contrast the two "mirrors," The Clear Mirror with Tale of Flowering Fortunes.

13. Describe how ethics change depending on one's social status in medieval Japan. The Great Peace will be a primary source of information, but other works we have read may be useful, too.

14.Compare and contrast Little One Inch with either Tale of the Bamboo Cutter or Momotaro (Peach Boy--not on our reading list, but available in our library in either Georgene Faulkner's Little Peachling and Other Tales of Old Japan or Lafcadio Hearn's Japanese Fairy Tales).

15. How does haiku poetry differ from the earlier poetry we've read? What imagery does it use, and what allusions (if any) does it use?

16. Compare the attitudes and mores in Love Suicides at Sonezaki with those in the first section of The Clear Mirror.

17. How did the social structure of the Tokugawa period affect Ihara Saikaku's writing? What focus did it take as a result?